Windows Installer 3.1v2

Question

You may not be able to answer my question but I have been trying to download files that are msi files all from the microsoft website this is one of the files MBSASetup-EN.msi and this is the name of the file.Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer v2.0.1 (for IT Professionals but I keep getting an error that this is not a valid win32 program I spent about 3 hours reading a lot of your pages on programing and creating proper files that can be installed by people like me....... I spent a lot of time on this page http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa370315(VS.85).aspx ...........MsiInstallProduct Function (Windows) I have installed and reinstalled windows installer 3.1v2 and also the update for the installer but still get the error when I try to download this msi file. I guess my question is, is it me and do I have a problem or is this program just not made correctly...... I mean the windows installer is msiexec.msi and it won;t install an msi file from microsoft downloads?? I am running windows xp home edition sp2 along with explorer 7 and it's sp2 update and just installed IE Pro7 to see if that would make a difference but it didn't. Any answers or should I just wait and see if it is a microsoft problems with the 3.1v2 installer. I have no problem downloading and other programs, files or updates. I have read some reports on how to fix this problem but none of them made a difference.

 

Thanks

Robin

 

Answer 1

Can you please describe exactly what you are doing and when the error occurs? You get the error when you try to download the MSI file? Or later after you save it and then double-click it?  Why are you looking at MsiInstallProduct? Have you written a program to call MsiInstallProduct??? If so, post the failing code.

 

 

Answer 2

The download is okay. The error comes up as soon as I try to open it.......That is when I get "this is not a valid win 32 program", Sometimes I get windows cannot install this program choose a program to open it. I choose windows installer and then I get the error "that this is not a valid win32 program', but 95% of the time as soon as I try to open it I get the message that windows cannot open this program it is not a valid win32 program. I was reading the information about making up msi programs on the MSDN website just to see the scripts and all the information about msi programs just to see if there was something in there to explain why I am having this problem. The problem started as soon as I downloaded the update to windows installer 3.1 and continued when I installed the v2 update and still continued when I downloaded the updated fix for for the installer and downloading updates. I have uninstalled and reinstalled 3 times to see if I am doing something wrong or maybe the program did not fully install correctly. I even did a search to find all the msiexec.msi files after I uninstalled it and found that there is one in the windows file, one in I386, one in system32 ( which I cannot get rid of. When I delete it 5 seconds later it comes back, There is also a file in sdold and software distribution. I tried to get rid of all the files to so I could download the older windows 3.0 installer which I had no problems with, but I  am sure I would need to go though the registry and do a search for msiexec.msi and delete those files also, but I am not comfortable messing with the registry even though I have in the past to fix problems with other programs, but that was following instructions from a posted article......... but anyway windows installer 3.0 won't install saying I have an updated version and quits.

 

 

Just wanted to close this I fixed the problem myself. I noticed Windows installer was not included in the running processes. I realized this when I again tried to reinstall it and noticed that it stopped the service when it started to install but it never started the service so I looked into running processes and there was no windows installer. So I figured I mjust be missing something so I reinstalled SP2, I then saw that windows installer was in the running processes now. I downloaded an msi file and it opened into notepad, so I went to files types and it siad open with notepad. So I hit advanced typed in windows installer and typed in the file path......"C:\WINDOWS\System32\msiexec.exe" /i "%1" %*

and checked DDE. I closed the file aand it now saaid windows installer and I opened the file and it installed perfectly. I saved this file path for some reason on next restart it siad note pad again and I had to repeat the process. I also checked the registry HKEY currentuser/software.microsoft/windows/explorer/fileext/mci and the default was set with windows installer with correct code for mssiexec.msi.....I copied aand saved this code in case something new happens but now the installer in working fine installing msi files and the problem seems fixed, but even even it isn't I know what resets I need to perform to correct it.

Thanks for your help

 

Robin

Answer 3

when i restart my computer i get this tray application.msi window that comes up & then i get this windows installer window that comes up & it looks like it installs twice & then on the third try it stops a quarter of the way & then another window comes up saying "tray app" the feature you're trying to use is on a cd-rom or other removable disk that is not available. insert the 'tray app' disk & click ok. use source & then there's a dropdown box below "use source" & next to the dropdown box it says browse. also in the dropdown box it says msi. i have windows xp pro, ie7 (which constantly has an error window coming up saying "windows IE has encountered an error & needs to close" send report, don't send report". sometimes i send it & sometimes i don't. i also downloaded SPK3 about 1 1/2  months ago. there doesn't seem to be an installer if you have service pack 3. any suggsetions?? tia. goldy